This article provides
a discussion of issues confronting institutions of higher education in their
efforts to reduce costs and improve the quality of instruction for large classes.
Blended learning is described with examples of technology applications referenced
to existing courses at various universities. A discussion of cost reduction
strategies is included. The article concludes with a summary of the types
of adaptations and alternatives that instructors may use in teaching large
classes, consideration of reusable course content, and the relationship of
technology to instructional costs.

Introduction

There is a financial
crisis in higher education forcing cuts in programs and pricing some students
out of post-secondary education. Tuition has increased at an annual average
of 5.5 to 7.7 percent at four-year institutions (College Board, 2001), and
for the 2003-2004 academic year, state colleges had the biggest tuition hike
in three decades with a 14% rise over the previous year. According to the
U.S. Department of Education, student debt on college loans in the United
States topped $178 billion in 1999 (Dieterle, 2002). The greatest cost for
most institutions is due to salaries and benefits because higher education
is labor intensive, meaning that labor costs are greater than capital costs.
Per-student costs are mainly a function of four variables:

A marginal increase in
average salaries is a significant cost to an institution, and aging "baby-boomers"
on college faculties drive up medical expenses that are borne by institutional
insurance programs. Many corporations have achieved significant cost savings
by means of increased productivity or greater output per worker. This is often
accomplished by increased use of technology and automation in place of labor.
Similar "capital for labor" methods are more difficult in higher education,
so institutions use early retirement programs to free up slots for a younger
faculty with lower salaries and resort to greater use of adjunct professors.

Another way that universities
reduce costs is by warehousing students. The largest lecture class in 20 years
was taught this year at Harvard
with 300 students enrolled in an introductory economics course. The world's
largest lecture class was reported to be 1,600 students in introductory psychology
at Cornell (Leff,
2002). Many campuses commonly crowd 200 or more students into a lecture
hall. Although large classes are cost effective for the institution, there
is widespread concern about the quality of instruction. Graham Gibbs, of Open
University, vividly describes the problems in a brief streaming video
about teaching large classes. Felder
(1997) related the sense of despair many college instructors feel when
confronted with a large class:

When we find
ourselves teaching a mob, it's easy to throw up our hands, conclude that there's
no chance of getting any responsiveness out of 150 or 300 students in an auditorium,
and spend 45 hours showing transparencies to the listless 60% who bother to
show up from day to day. We can generate some interest by bringing demonstrations
to class, but there are only so many hydrogen balloons we can explode and
even they lose their impact after a while (para 1).

There are two basic
strategies for improving learning in large classes: (a) placing greater responsibility
on students, including recommendations for study skills (see a web page at
Michigan
State University), and (b) better lecture presentations (e.g., Penn
State and University
of Maryland). A more direct approach is a capital-intensive strategy or
course redesign based on supplanting personnel with technology. Called "blended
learning" or a "hybrid model," face-to-face (F2F) and distance education delivery
methods and resources are merged. As Young
(2002) said, "Hybrid models appear less controversial among faculty members
than fully online courses have been, though some professors worry about any
move away from an educational system that has worked for centuries" (para
10). A group at UCLA defined
this concept as blendedinstruction:

Blended instruction is a term
for the delivery of instruction based on the integration of face-based instruction
and computer-based instruction. In blended instruction, a significant amount
of student learning is achieved through online instruction, resulting in
changes to course structure and how/where students allocate their time in
mastery of the course content. Blended instruction can be an important vehicle
to begin to exploit the potential of technology to improve the quality of
instruction, to increase access, to increase the amount of learning, and
to maintain or reduce costs (Instructional Technology Planning Board, 2003,
para 1).

Cost Reductions
and Technology

There has been little research
about the uses of blended instruction as an alternative to conventional instruction.
The exception is the Pew Grant "Program in Course Redesign" (Twigg,
2003) that has supported 30 institutions in non-competitive grants to
demonstrate how colleges and universities can redesign their instructional
approaches in large classes using technology to achieve cost savings and quality
enhancements. The projects focuses on large-enrollment, introductory courses.
Currently 20 institutions have reported results of their experiments concerning
cost reductions. Based on these data, the differences between institutions
are readily apparent. For example, the cost per student in biology at one
institution was $506 dollars but only $199 for a similar course at another
university. The difference was accounted for class size and the sections per
instructor. Costs were reduced by increasing the number of sections handled
by the instructor and use of less expensive staff support. For example, one
institution reported that online delivery of content, to replace lectures,
"presented content so well that instructors did not need to spend time delivering
content, thus enabling one faculty member, with the help of a course assistant,
to be responsible for four mathematics courses simultaneously while spending
less time than would be needed to offer only one course without the software"
(Rio Salado
College, 2001).

Twigg (2003) provided an analysis
of the "Course Redesign" program saying, "The approach most favored by the
Round I projects was to keep student enrollments the same while reducing the
instructional resources devoted to the course" (para 17), and shifting some
related tasks to technology-assisted activities. In two institutions, the
"key cost-saving device" was replacing expensive labor (faculty and graduate
students) with relatively inexpensive labor, such as undergraduate coaches
to grade homework assignments. At one institution, classroom space was freed
up by substituting online activities for face-to-face classroom instruction.

The technological innovations
used in course redesign were reported as follows:

Online course management
systems that reduced or eliminated the amount of time faculty spent on nonacademic
tasks such as recording, calculating and storing grades; photocopying course
materials; posting changes in schedules and course syllabi; making special
announcements; and transporting syllabi, assignments, and examinations.

Online automated
assessment of exercises, quizzes, and tests.

Online tutorials
that resulted in less preparation time for teaching assistants.

While the "Program in
Course Redesign" was heralded by Twigg as an "unqualified success,"
it seems that cost savings were achieved mostly by alterations in the assignments
of personnel time and ratios of students to instructors. As Twigg commented,
"The differences are directly attributable to the different design decisions
made by the teams, especially regarding what to do with the faculty time that
was saved."

Scalability of Blended
Instruction

Distance education is
an alternative for students who are otherwise unable to participate in on-campus
courses, but few colleges have leveraged the technologies for students enrolled
on campus. In a report to the University of California Regents, Murphy
(2003) said, "To have a truly revolutionary effect on instruction in general,
however, requires that these innovations be scalable to other instructors
and courses, and that they be strategically implemented to meet pedagogical
goals" (para 3). In order to make such innovations scalable, it is necessary
to consider the current and emerging possibilities for applications of technology
to course elements.

Scalability is the capability
to serve a larger number of users without degradation or major changes in
existing procedures. Asynchronous delivery seems to be the only viable, scalable
method. Synchronous technology cannot reduce costs (i.e., two-way interactive
video, one-way video with two-way audio, and closed-circuit, and satellite),
because it requires the instructor and students to meet at a particular time
and location, and it only marginally increases the number of students who
may participate. While costs increase because of the need for equipment at
all sites, and there are additional charges for uplinking, salaries of non-instructional
personnel, and so forth, the major factor is the constrained number of students
who can be served in real time. The asynchronous model is potentially more
cost effective if it can serve more students. Asynchronous delivery on the
WorldWideWeb (WWW) can result in cost savings, depending upon how many students
may enroll. However, many institutions restrict enrollments in distance education.

The more effective the
technological delivery, the more likely the lesson will match or surpass traditional
lecture. Many applications of technology in lecture classes are add-on slideshows,
which often become the basis for online content. As online delivery becomes
more intelligent, perhaps with cognitive modeling that personalizes instruction
and adjusts automatically to each student's characteristics, online tutorial
instruction will become increasingly important. Davis and Ragsdell (2000)
reported on the adaptation of the Keller personalized system of instruction
(PSI) that used "appropriately sized learning modules" consisting of audio,
video, and dynamic textual content to replace the lecture portion of a course.
The PSI relies on greater structure, shorter learning steps, reduced verbal
loads and self-pacing. The student advances to the next topic upon mastery
of each unit, and there is an emphasis on repeated testing and immediate
scoring (Keller, 1968, p. 83)

As a capital-intensive
strategy, many more students must be served with the same number or fewer
instructors. An asynchronous model can be scalable to permit realignment of
faculty resources with technology, rather than attempting to expand faculty
resources to meet load demands created by the conventional organizational
pattern (i.e., instructors x time slots x seats). This can also
reduce the physical demands and costs associated with classrooms and lab use.

Elements of Blended
Instruction

The blend of adaptations
and technology may be important in both cost savings and in learning enhancements.
Consideration should be given to the various aspects of a course including
(a) lecture, (b) self-study, (c) application, (d) tutoring, (e) collaboration
and (f) evaluation.

Lecture. Several
techniques are used to improve the lecture in addition to general guidelines
for an effective lecture. An innovation at the City
University of New York is peer-led teaching. Students who have previously
done well in the course become guides and mentors to assist a new class of
students through difficult course content. They are less expensive than graduate
teaching assistants. The University
of Waikato has experimented with a course in management information using
a student-centered approach as an alternative to lecture with tutorials, a
workbook, and assessment, where students spend their time in class in small
groups to discuss their work rather than listen to lectures.

One of the easiest innovations
is streaming video and/or audio. A lecture equivalent in multimedia can be
a simple video of the actual lecture delivered to a class, but more desirable
would be video segments specifically designed for each concept. The Michigan
State University physics
department uses a web site as a lecture in physics rather than as a substitute
for a textbook. Professor Matt
Nickerson uses streaming video for Humanities 1010 at South Utah University.
An example of streaming audio that employs voice over with graphics is a course
by Ed Meyen at the University
of Kansas. Cal Poly Pomona has an interactive
physics course.

The computer can provide
content for a lecture as text, slide presentations, or a sophisticated tutorial.
This can help overcome time and manpower barriers, and any content in an electronic
form can be easily corrected or revised. A computer simulation can be an effective
method of providing students with skills, knowledge, and realistic applications
of knowledge. Examples of simulations are at Cornell in physics
and the International Communication
and Negotiation Simulations at the University of Maryland.

Some devices used by
professors to break up lecture are (a) Think-Pair-Share, where students write
for a minute or so then discuss with another student and reach consensus,
and may be called upon to share with the class (Creed,
1996); (b) One Minute Paper, where students write their names on a paper
and briefly answer questions, such as "What was the most important point made
in class today?" (Angelo & Cross, 1993); Traveling File, where questions
are placed in a "traveling file," the class is divided into discussion groups,
and each group receives a different file, which they open, discuss and respond,
place the answer in the folder, and the process continues until all groups
have answered all questions, which are then read to the class by the instructor
(Karre, 1994). Some universities use electronic response pads in large classes
to electronically take attendance, give examinations, and poll students during
lectures. Obviously, these strategies may improve interaction and student
engagement, but they will not necessarily reduce costs.

Self-study. Most
courses require one or more textbooks, which is often the content of the course.
Some professors require 2 or 3 textbooks for a course. In introductory courses
there is sufficient duplication of content on the Internet to be used in place
of textbooks, and professors who are competent in their disciplines can create
their own multimedia applications to substitute for books. However, textbook
costs are totally absorbed by students and represent no savings to the institution.

Application. Common
application techniques include experiments and activities in labs, writing
terms papers, and conducting research. Problem-based learning (PBL) has been
suggested as an authentic learning activity to replace or supplement current
methodologies (West, 1992). PBL has been most widely employed in medical schools
but also in pharmacy, nursing, and dentistry (Vernon & Blake, 1993; Bridges
& Hallinger, 1991). PBL is considered to be learning in context (Collins,
Brown, & Newman, 1989). Rather than lectures, notes, and examinations,
students are presented ill-structured problems from the real world. Cognitive
coaching is a critical component. While students actively define problems
and construct potential solutions, a teacher (model, coach) avoids directing
the group but assists them in defining their problems and organizing to solve
them. Examples of PBL are at the University
of Delaware and McMaster
University. It is difficult to see how savings can be achieved by means
of PBL, which can actually require a lower ratio of instructors to students.
Only in the case of replacement of labs through computerized simulation, there
do not seem to be many areas in this category that are susceptible to significant
cost savings.

Tutoring. A number
of university courses employ a variety of interactive courseware and computer-assisted
instruction for students. Publishing companies are providing both CD-ROMs
and online content for students as a supplement to their paper content. The
use of Java and Flash in the development of specific tutorials is enjoying
growth. Harvey Mudd
College provides online tutorials in calculus, and The University
of Sheffield, Purdue
University, and Oxford
University have tutorials in chemistry online. While these technological
applications may improve student engagement, they cannot result in cost savings
unless they replace substantial portions of lecture or extend the impact of
an instructor across several sections.

Collaboration. In
recent years there has been a growing interest in the use of collaborative
models of learning in higher education, especially the use of cooperative
learning techniques (Slavin, 1987). Cooperative Learning is a way to use small
groups to get students to work together to increase their achievement. Drake
University maintains a web site for its faculty on active and collaborative
learning. The International
Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education maintains a web
site and provides a newsletter of interest to higher education professionals.

Many professors in distance
education use electronic Listservs and Forums or Threaded Discussions, and
these can be used in conjunction with a didactic course. Computers to support
cooperative learning and team work is also known as groupware or computer-supported
cooperative work (CSCW). Interactive
Technology Publishing provides a comprehensive list of resources. A tool
that may have application for online collaboration is a Wiki, derived from
the Hawaiian meaning "quick." There are many Wiki "communities" online that
provide access so that members can have the rights to edit a common web document.
As in other instances mentioned above, these strategies do not necessarily
reduce demands on instructors nor result in savings.

Communication. In
addition to the tools of Listserv and Forums, chat and e-mail can be used
for communication among students and the instructor. With rare exceptions,
it is probably true that most professors and students use e-mail. Oxford
University provides a thoughtful consideration of the uses and problems
associated with using e-mail in teaching.
Like other technology applications, there seem to be little direct savings
in cost, although any form of electronic communication that reduces faculty
conferences in real time may result in a savings.

Evaluation. A
restriction in any large class is the limitation on conducting frequent, formative
assessments. With computer-adapted testing (CAT), immediate results can be
used for formative evaluation rather than only summative. CAT differs from
ordinary test administration because items can be selected from a large pool
of equated items based on probes that estimate the subject's ability according
to response patterns. The CAT establishes a testing "floor" and "ceiling"
by presenting a subject with an item of medium difficulty that is followed
by a simpler or more difficult item, depending upon the student's responses.
If a CAT is not feasible, many software programs have their own item banks
and it is not difficult to import item banks from other sources so colleges
can create their own. By aggregating item banks in a continuum of task difficulty
according to the curriculum, formative assessment can be made more meaningful.
If the purpose of assessment is understood to be that of assisting students
to recognize that they are learning what is intended, providing frequent feedback
to students and teachers is an obligation. This represents assessment of the
highest validity.
Computerized testing may result in a savings in time and real costs. This
use of technology can result in some savings if paper is replaced with electrons.

The following table shows
a range of possible adaptations that can be used in large classes, including
adaptations of traditional course methods and technological alternatives.

The productivity measure
in higher education is the "student-credit hour," which is variable from one
institution to another. The productivity of an instructor is determined by
both the "course load" (how many courses are taught in a semester) and the
student-credit hours generated. For about a century, the "student credit hour"
has been accepted as a common measure of productivity in higher education
in the United States, and it is widely used to compare distributions of work
within and across programs and institutions. The credit-hour measure is used
to report the cost of instruction per student hour and to assess cost-effectiveness
and productivity for entire institutions, colleges, departments, and individual
instructors.

Faculty load is more
subject to the vagaries of local policies and not directly interpretable,
since in some institutions, and depending upon market forces, there are significant
differences in what constitutes a load. In a non-research institution, for
example, a full load may be 4 or 5 courses per semester. In a research institution,
part of the load may be for "research," either because the faculty member
must "buy" out release time from teaching with funded research or is provided
with some portion of load to conduct research. Thus, a professor may have
two or three courses. In areas where there are shortages of professors, higher
salaries are paid for essentially the same duties and the work load may be
lighter because of supply and demand negotiations. For example, if professors
in the business school are in short supply, they can command higher salaries
than professors in other colleges where candidates are more plentiful, and
they can negotiate smaller classes and lighter loads.

Despite its flaws, the
student credit hour is the basis for work loads, student outcomes, cost per
student, and other measures. Using this crude measure, it is obvious that
large classes are cost-effective, in the sense that it is economical for services
received for the money spent, especially if the instructor has a low salary.
The main lesson learned in the "Course Redesign" project (Twigg, 2003) seems
to be that increasing student-credit hours per instructor saves money. There
are two ways to do this, (a) large lecture classes or (b) lectures supplanted
by online tutorials. In fact, closer examination of the results reported by
Twigg shows that the main savings were accounted for by increasing the student
credit hours for instructors. The largest percentage savings, ranging from
37 to 77 percent, can be attributed to this. In fact, at Virginia Tech, which
posted a 77% savings, 40-student sections were managed by one instructor at
.50 load using an online course-delivery method. In effect, distance education
was used for on-campus students.

Another potentially significant
way to save costs may be through some form of reusable learning objects (RLO).
Research in this area has been underway for a number of years in the hope
that knowledge, or rather information, can be chunked and tagged (i.e., text,
graphics, videos, audios, databases, and so forth) with XML (Extensible Markup
Language) and placed in a database to be shared and easily reused to generate
a course of instruction according to standards adopted under the "Sharable
Content Object Reference Model" (SCORM) and accessed by means of a Learning
Management System (LMS). Apparently there remains a considerable amount of
work to do before this can be achieved, if it ever can, but the concept could
be applied to the static elements of course content without a sophisticated
database structure. That is to say, a university or a group of cooperating
developers could create content strands that are important for introductory
courses and retain them in a repository, share them, and reduce the need for
revisions and course creation each semester without SCORM or an LMS.

Developing a repository
of content that can be used now and in the future will save time, money, and
effort by replacing lectures and reducing course preparation, a truly capital-intensive
strategy. With greater responsibility for content delivery shifted to technology,
it is theoretically possible that fewer instructors would be needed. In many
courses in psychology, chemistry, mathematics, humanities, statistics, and
so forth, much course content is identical semester after semester and unlikely
to change much in the future. By tying electronic instructional units to tests
and activities, a comprehensive body of courseware could be developed that
would be serviceable with little maintenance for many semesters to come.

Some academics regard
"capital-for-labor" as a "Taylorization" of academic labor (Hanley, 2002).
Technology threatens faculty who fear technological displacement. Of course,
almost all industries have been affected by technology, either through elimination
of entire industries or replacement of human labor with more efficient automation.
That it may also occur in higher education is not inconceivable. This is not
necessarily a zero-sum alternative, because before deciding that technology
will merely "industrialize teaching and learning and degrade academic labor,"
as asserted by Hanley, instructional issues should be considered as they now
exist for large lecture classes. Large lecture classes are not necessarily
effective for student learning and motivation, regardless of the cost differential.
If technological adaptations improve student engagement, provide content that
matches learning styles, allow self-pacing, accommodates different learning
rates, and frees the instructor's time for applications and higher-order thinking
rather than expository lectures, large lecture classes will be difficult to
justify regardless of the consequences for the employment of professors. Warehousing
students cannot be defended on any grounds other than costs.

Conclusion

"Blended Learning"
is some combination of technology and traditional classroom instruction
that may improve learner outcomes and/or save costs. Any resource can be conceptualized
according to how it targets such barriers as cost, time, convenience, and
quality of instruction. The way elements are blended can depend upon a variety
of local factors related to the average faculty and staff salaries, faculty
work assignments, support staff, and related facilities costs, but clearly
the most important factor is faculty salary and work load. How these interact
with development, delivery, and maintenance costs will determine the extent
of savings. While students and faculty are dissatisfied with large lecture
classes, synchronous instruction will not reduce costs. Asynchronous instruction
can reduce costs, depending upon the number of students enrolled. If technological
applications can be effective in teaching and learning, they may be used to
reduce college instructional costs and extend other benefits that are currently
unavailable on the college campus. Greater reliance on technology might result
in several benefits: (a) equivalent or improved instruction, (b) an engaged
model of learning, (c) accelerated completion of courses, (d) self-paced
or personalized instruction (e) reduced dropout and reenrollments in the same
courses, and (f) reduction of course duplication and redundancy. But the future
of blended learning or instructional technology in higher education will most
likely be determined by how instructional issues are negotiated between administrators
and faculty, an issue between management and labor.

Bridges, E. M.,
& Hallinger, P. (1999). Problem-based learning in medical and managerial
education. Paper presented for the Cognition and School Leadership Conference
of the National Center for Educational Leadership and the Ontario Institute
for Studies in Education, Nashville, TN.